Dodger Thoughts

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By Jon Weisman

I don’t know about you, but Spring Training feels like it’s sprinting toward us.

On to today’s links …

• Dodger broadcaster Charley Steiner will emcee the 2014 Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductions luncheon Sunday in Bel Air. Honorees include indispensable Dodger historical figure Roz Wyman, the Los Angeles City Councilwoman who was instrumental in bringing the Dodgers to Los Angeles, and longtime Dodger publicist Toby Zwikel. (A tribute video for Wyman from last year, narrated by Steiner, appears above.)
• Whatever happens with Masahiro Tanaka, you can’t say the neogiations haven’t been unique, writes Buster Olney of ESPN.com. Olney adds some background information about agent of the moment Casey Close, while Daniel Brim at Dodgers Digest attempts to put Tanaka’s Japanese statistics in an MLB context.
• Orel Hershiser’s contract situation post-1988 was not all that different from Clayton Kershaw’s post-2013. Eric Stephen of True Blue L.A. researches the comparison.
• Ken Burns is doing a documentary on Jackie Robinson scheduled to air on PBS next year, notes Lisa De Moraes of Deadline. Meanwhile, Mike Oz posts a letter from Robinson to King at Big League Stew.
• Speaking of documentaries, the Sundance Film Festival introduced “The Battered Bastards of Baseball,” a project about the independent Portland Mavericks. Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere has more.
• Kenny Landreaux was among those offering guidance to young people on Martin Luther King Day at the Compton Urban Youth Academy, writes Lyle Spencer of MLB.com. “I’m trying to teach these kids how to handle adversity and deal with any situation in life,” Landreaux said.
• SABR Day is coming Saturday, and Emma Amaya writes about it at Dodger Blue World.
• What have our neighbors to the south been up to this winter? Jay Jaffe of SI.com gives the Padres’ offseason a C+.
• Hundreds paid tribute Monday at the funeral of Michael Weiner, the head of the MLB Players’ Association, including former Dodgers Chris Capuano and Craig Counsell.
• If you think the Dodger Stadium field is being transformed with this week’s hockey extravaganza, just remember it has only been two years since motocross took over the ballpark. (Mark Langill provided the pic below.)